By SANCHESKA BROWN
Tribune Staff Reporter
sbrown@tribunemedia.net
VOTE “Yes” coordinator Phillip Galanis said yesterday web shops are legal entities and should remain open despite Bahamians’ overwhelming “no” vote in Monday’s gaming referendum.
Mr Galanis said the web shop owners are awaiting the government’s decision and that will determine how they will proceed.
“This was a very important issue to the country and we are disappointed on how it turned out. But we fully maintain that web shops are legal entities that were licensed by the government. They should continue to operate and remain open despite the fact that they are not being taxed or regulated,” he said.
“I have not seen for myself but I think the web shops are still open. I will say this there is no reason for them to close. They are legal entities. The vote yesterday means Bahamian people do no want the businesses to be taxed or regulated. The Bahamian people lost yesterday because the revenue that could have been made by the government will still be made and the web shops can still operate as they were.”
Some web operators blamed Monday’s loss at the polls on a “poorly managed and run campaign.” However Mr Galanis said he ran a good clean campaign and “Vote no” won because many people decided to stay home.
He said:” We think we ran a good campaign. In fact, several of the web shop operators called me to commend me on a job well done despite the results. Some of them might have said something but we did not hear them. I think we lost because of a low voter turnout. Many people stayed home. There may have been a level of uncertainty and a degree of confusion on why they were asked to vote yes or no. I think if all the supporters turned up the outcome would have been different.”
Mr Galanis said the 3,000 web shop employees were concerned about their future and what their next move will be.
Web Shop Owners Craig Flowers, FML, and Sebas Bastian, Island Luck, in earlier interviews, both said they would shut down their operations if Bahamians voted no.
However, Mr Bastian said he would not shut down his website.
“We would close down the physical stores themselves but the website will basically remain on through the mere fact that the website is not illegal. It is licensed by the Isle of Man, the servers are located in the Isle of Man, and I have a gaming license to operate islandluck.com,” Mr Bastian said. “It has zero to do with the Bahamas. It is just accessed by Bahamians from the Bahamas, so that makes my part of that business, perfectly legal.”
Mr Bastian confirmed he has 37 outlets with 437 employees, about 87 mobile PDAs who are paid on commission, and 138 franchises where panels are in various bars and convenience stores – which have their own employees.
Comments
legalmindatwork 11 years, 2 months ago
I'm sorry but Mr. Galanis has only now decided to speak up on it AFTER the vote was returned. Where was all of this beforehand?? Mr. Galanis himself said that shares were willing to be offered to the public to purchase should it be legalised. It was the campaign for the vote yes that it should be legalised...along with being regulated and taxed...so who is at fault?? To me it seems as if everyone is trying to save face and try to slyly place the blame on the Bahamian public when all along the public was crying out for more information from both sides. Should they have listened to the cries before the vote there may have been a different result. Until then I employ the minority of persons who had more of a personal gain behind the Yes vote to go and pick up their faces that are now lining the street...I don't wanna get any dirt on the bottom of my shoe.
HarryWyckoff 11 years, 2 months ago
Mr Bastian is not telling the truth.
The server running the Islandluck website is not housed in the Isle of Man, but in fact in The Bahamas, on a Cable Bahamas IP Address:
-- IP Location: Bahamas Nassau Cyber City It Group ASN: AS15146 IP Address: 64.150.239.246
Reverse IP: 1 website uses this address. (islandluck.com)
NetRange: 64.150.192.0 - 64.150.255.255 CIDR: 64.150.192.0/18 OriginAS:
NetName: CABLEBAHAMAS-NET NetHandle: NET-64-150-192-0-1 Parent: NET-64-0-0-0-0 NetType: Direct Allocation RegDate: 2006-09-06 Updated: 2012-03-20 Ref: http://whois.arin.net/rest/net/NET-64...">http://whois.arin.net/rest/net/NET-64...
MartGM 11 years, 2 months ago
lol! I'm sure that will be changed in short order.
Understandfacts 11 years, 2 months ago
Do you know you can be sued for this?
Ironvelvet 11 years, 2 months ago
Agreed legalmindatwork. The exact issue that Mr. Galanis is using to his advantage, the use of words in the referendum questions, is precisely what the Bahamian people and FNM had an issue with. Legalize, regulate, taxation and the like. Many asked for this referendum to be postponed and further explanations, public service announcements, and town halls to be had.
And to answer Darold Miller's question to his show's guests about "Well didn't they have town hall meetings and does it matter who sponsored them?" YES, Darrold, it matters! Clearly if the yes vote held the meeting, it's going to have a yes slant and vice versa if the no folks had sponsored it.
The government, who claimed they didn't have a horse in the race should have used a finite amount of dollars to sponsor explanations, and Q/A sessions on the subject and perhaps make those consultants and their report available whome we paid so much of our taxpayer monies to.
The Christie administration policitized this referendum from the beginning, I pray the opposition protests for a rapid amendment to the current law and to shut down these webshops for good.
And before someone gets on me for making people jobless, let me answer them too. ANNOUNCEMENT: Please make a means to find LEGITIMATE employment in the mean time and thank the good Jesus daily for the injunction to allow you time to find a decent job.
USAhelp 11 years, 2 months ago
Must be nice after losing you can call a foul and act like nothing happened. Our votes don't count if the results don'tconform to the bosses.
Understandfacts 11 years, 2 months ago
Your votes will count on what you voted for.
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